Good News

Jerryme Corre is back home in Angeles City, Pampanga with his wife and step children after 6 years behind bars in the Philippines on false drug charges. Jerryme was subjected to ruthless torture at the hands of police in 2012 after being falsely arrested while visiting his aunt’s house on his day off. He was rushed by more than ten armed police officers in plainclothes, who beat him in the street before taking him back to a police station. There, they beat the soles of his feet with a wooden baton, removed his shorts and used them to suffocate him, ‘waterboarded’ him and zapped him with electric wires for hours. During his interrogation, they repeatedly called him by the wrong name. Eventually an official arrived to identify him and told police they had arrested the wrong man, but they charged him anyway, and forced him to sign a confession that he wasn’t allowed to read. Despite a court ruling in 2016 that he had been tortured by police, the drug charges against him were not dropped and he was forced to remain in jail until March 2nd, 2018 when a motion to dismiss his case was granted due to lack of evidence.

Finally! Teodora has been released after a court reduced her sentence. She was forced to spend a decade behind bars in El Salvador after having pregnancy-related complications resulting in stillbirth.

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez suffered a stillbirth in 2007, after the rapid onset of serious pain while she was at work. Police arrested her as she lay in a pool of blood. She was later sentenced to 30 years for ‘aggravated homicide’ in a trial full of irregularities under El Salvador’s total ban on abortion.

Amnesty International has been campaigning for years to overturn the total ban on abortion in all circumstances in El Salvador. Teodora's release is yet another step towards justice where the total ban on abortion has led to at least 27 other women to be incarcerated.

After nearly 8 months in detention, Taner Kılıç, Chair of Amnesty International Turkey, has been conditionally released!

Thank you for all of your outstanding efforts to call for Taner’s freedom. More than a million Amnesty supporters all over the world have been campaigning for the release of all human rights defenders through meetings with government officials, rallies, letter-writing – including hundreds of thousands of letters during Write for Rights in December, Amnesty's biggest global day of action – public demonstrations, and high profile figures calling for their release. It has been a remarkable period of solidarity and action.

Our digital campaigning action calling for safe evacuation from East Aleppo in December saw just under 300,000 people take action via amnesty.org, with 284,439 visits on one day (much over the average of around 19,000 per day). We rely on the dedication of amazing supporters worldwide to come together and take action on important issues like this so the world cannot ignore crises like these.

Thirteen health and human rights activists, including two South Africans and one Ugandan, have been released after the court found that there was insufficient evidence against them. The 13 were arrested during a consultative meeting to discuss the Tanzanian government’s decision to limit the provision of certain health services that it had previously provided.

After more than 100 days in prison, Amnesty’s Director in Turkey, Idil Eser – and all of the “Istanbul 10” - have been released! They were imprisoned in July on entirely baseless terror charges, as part of a widespread crackdown in Turkey.

Thank you to the incredible efforts of human rights supporters around the world who spoke out in so many ways to help bring about this uplifting news. Had they been convicted, they could have faced jail terms up to 15 years.

Amnesty supporters all over the world have been campaigning for the release of all 11 human rights defenders since their arrests in June and July, through meetings with government officials, rallies, letter writing, public demonstrations, and high profile figures calling for their release. It has been a remarkable period of solidarity and action.

Today’s release of Irish citizen Ibrahimn Halawa is a resounding victory for those who have campaigned on his behalf and brings to an end his painful four-year ordeal behind bars in an Egyptian prison, said Amnesty International.

Ibrahim Halawa release from Wadi al-Natroun prison is long overdue after more than one month from his acquittal date. He is due to arrive home to Ireland in the coming days. Amnesty International has been campaigning for his release since he was first arrested four years ago at a protest in Cairo. Thousands of Amnesty International supporters in dozens of countries signed petitions calling on the authorities to set him free during the years he was detained.

“After four years of unjust detention, today Ibrahim Halawa finally walks free. He should never have been jailed in the first place and it is utterly outrageous that he was forced to spend a single minute of his young life behind bars.” said Najia Bounaim, North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty International.

Poet Wu Mingliang, better known by his pen name “Langzi”, and Peng Heping were released on 22 September after being criminally detained since August. It is believed Wu Mingliang’s detention was was related to poems that he had helped produce that commemorated Liu Xiaobo.

Wu Mingliang was released on bail on 22 September 2017 after having been criminally detained at Haizhu District Detention Centre in Guangzhou on suspicion of “illegal business operations” since 18 August 2017.

Wu Mingliang’s lawyer and friends believe that he was detained due to his involvement in producing an anthology of poems in memory of Liu Xiaobo, who had passed away on 13 July 2017. Wu Mingliang was administratively detained for 10 days on 1 July 2017 after co-signing a letter of support of the detained Liu Xiaobo. During that time he was repeatedly asked by the police about an anthology of poems he took part in writing, editing and compiling to commemorate Liu Xiaobo, the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Mohammad Abu Sakha, a 24-year-old circus performer and teacher from Palestine’s West Bank has been released after two years of being held in administrative detention, by Israeli authorities in a prison in southern Israel without charge or trial.

Mohammad teaches circus skills at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, near Ramallah, where he specialises in working with children with learning difficulties. The circus school trains Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and to ‘strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society.’

It’s not often we have positive news to share on death penalty cases. However, in August 2017 we heard back news on two cases in the US whereby the Governor in Missouri issued a stay of execution and the Governor in Arkansas announced his intent to commute a death sentence.

On 22 August, the governor of Missouri issued a stay of execution for Marcellus Williams who was due to be put to death later that day. The governor issued a stay of execution so as that he could appoint a five-member Board of Inquiry to consider “all evidence presented to the jury, in addition to newly discovered DNA evidence, and any other relevant evidence not available to the jury”. The Board “shall report and make a recommendation to the Governor as to whether or not Williams should be executed or his sentence of death commuted”.

The announcement of a ceasefire agreement between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian government is a historic step forward in efforts towards a just and sustainable peace in Colombia. Peace negotiations must ensure that all responsible for serious violations and abuses of human rights are held accountable, Amnesty International said.

“Colombia is taking yet another step towards an end to a five-decade-long armed conflict that has shattered millions of lives,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

“It is imperative that all parties to the conflict end attacks on civilians and other crimes under international law and that the parties prioritise human rights and accountability during peace negotiations.”

The ceasefire has been signed for a four-month period, after which the Colombian government and the ELN will start discussing a potential peace agreement.

The criminal case against prominent Russian human rights defender Valentina Cherevatenko for “violation of ‘foreign agents’ law” was closed on June 19 due to an “absence of the elements of the crime”. She was not informed of the decision and only learnt of it by accident over a month later.

Valentina was the first Russian activist to face criminal prosecution under the "foreign agents" law. Therefore, news of the case against her being dropped is also a victory for Russian civil society as a whole, bringing hope that there may be space for positive change.